IN THE span of just two weeks, the Philippines has been devastated by a series of strong typhoons, the most recent and destructive ones being “Quinta” and “Rolly,” affecting hundreds of thousands of our kababayans most especially in Luzon.
Spurred by these difficulties, 100 youth organizations from the Kapit-Mindanao network have decided to join forces once again and organize an online and offline Bayanihan effort called the Kapit-Pinas campaign, aiming to raise funds and in-kind donations for the victims of typhoons “Quinta” and “Rolly.”
Convened by advocacy-based group Millennials PH and the Kapit-Mindanao network, the campaign runs from Nov. 1 to 30, 2020. The initiative’s goal is to augment the aid for 12 target areas that were badly affected by the onslaught of these typhoons namely: Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate, Catanduanes, Marinduque, Quezon, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna.
“Imagine the struggle of facing two super typhoons during a time when our country has yet to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a call for me and the team to work on another #SocialMediaBayanihan campaign because we need each other now more than ever and youth-led organizations must continuously collaborate to help those who are affected by these disasters,” said the National President of Millennials PH and Kapit-Mindanao Co-founder and National Convenor Meryl Hilda Jalani .
The campaign has already raised P735,000 which is a combination of cash and in-kind donations from its partners, Tanging Yaman Foundation and Premium Megastructures, Inc., three days after its launch in early November.
The fund and relief packs obtained through Kapit-Pinas will be distributed through community-based groups located in the abovementioned areas that have their own disaster response initiatives in-line with the requirements of their communities. Some of the needs include food items (such as canned goods, instant noodles, water), hygiene and dignity kits, and shelter materials. The first wave of relief distribution began Nov. 7, in Albay.
PHOTO FROM UNICEF.ORG 
PHOTO FROM UNICEF.ORG 
PHOTO FROM UNICEF.ORG
Banking on the original battle cry of Kapit-Mindanao, “Aabutin natin ang bawat sulok ng Mindanao”, the network has now expanded from reaching the unreached in Mindanao to helping our disaster-stricken brothers and sisters in Luzon. With this, “Aabutin natin ang iba’t ibang sulok ng Pilipinas” is now the group’s goal.
This isn’t the first fund-raising drive they’ve spearheaded this year. When COVID-19 hit the Philippines in March 2020, Millennials PH created several fundraising initiatives for Luzon areas in partnership with their 40 chapters in the Philippines. They were able to raise more than P1,000,000 for affected families in the region.
Shortly after this, they realized that most of the COVID response initiatives were mainly focused in Luzon, and very little for Mindanao. At that time, there were so many donation drives for different areas by different youth groups; donation fatigue was definitely kicking in. The group decided to create a “social media bayanihan” with other youth organizations and create one campaign for Mindanao.
Kapit-Mindanao, officially created on April 4, is a digital campaign that aimed to assist 20 communities from the six administrative regions of Mindanao. Together with 122 organizations from all over the country, their goal was to raise funding online and support the already on-the-ground initiatives of Mindanaon youth groups.
In a span of three months, they were able to raise almost 500,000 in monetary donations. Besides their social media bayanihan, they created two Kapit-Tinig online concerts with performances from the Netherlands, Argentina, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and Filipino artists like Philippine Idols Matty Juniosa, Ming Torayno and many more. They also created an online talk show called #SanaAll, hundreds of webinar collaborations, game nights, trivia nights and many more.
Millennials PH, through their Kapit-Mindanao movement is currently a finalist of the 2020 Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Foundation. This COVID-19 response initiative for 20 communities in Mindanao has already ended in July, but the group has continued working together in other youth-related projects. They have maintained the platform to assist other youth groups, provide mentorship, project collaborations etc. They intend to be a legitimate pathway referral system for future NGO, government and international opportunities.
Kapit-Pinas calls on everyone to donate through this link: tinyurl.com/KapitDonate and also join the call to reach more people through the hashtags #KapitPinas and #SocialMediaBayanihan.
Local personalities like mental health advocate Dr. Gia Sison and actor Christian Bables also expressed their support for the initiative.
For updates, further inquiries, and donations, follow the Millennials PH pages on Facebook (facebook.com/millennialsforPH an), Instagram (@millennialsph_), and Twitter (@millennials4ph) or send an email to millennialsph.org@gmail.com./PN
